Recently a firearms
store in Albuquerque, New Mexico announced that they were going to sponsor a
statewide coyote hunt, with the winning team of two hunters each receiving a
new rifle. The store, Calibers, caved in to anti-hunting protestors and
canceled the hunt. A small store in Los Lunas, Gunhawk Firearms, owned by Mark
Chavez, stepped in and decided to sponsor the event. From the protestors and
local ABC News coverage, you would have thought that Mark and the hunters were
engaging in the wholesale slaughter of animals and not legitimate hunting
activities.

Mark and his employees
at Gunhawk received multiple death threats as well as terrorist threats to blow
up their store. These were turned over to law enforcement for investigation. It
will be interesting to find out whether the authorities pursue these threats
with the same vigor that they have done with the harassment threats pertaining
to a four-star general’s girlfriend. Our thought is that they probably will
not. After all, Mark is only a small business owner in a small town in a
western state.>

Back to the story. Coyotes
are one of the most adaptable animals on the planet, having expanded their
range to every state in the continental U.S. and Canada. When I was a kid, more
than a half century ago, they were restricted mostly to the western U.S. Now,
coyotes are found everywhere, from Los Angeles to New York City. Coyotes are not
your friendly family dog-type; they carry distemper, hepatitis, parvo virus and
mange (caused by mites). In addition, they can also be infected with Rabies and
tularemia that can be transmitted to other animals and humans. For those
readers not familiar with tularemia, it is being studied by foreign countries
as a bacterial warfare agent and efforts are underway at several facilities in
the United States to develop suitable vaccines. None that are currently
available are very effective. As such, given their adaptability to humans and
lack of fear, if you are bitten by one, you stand a good chance of being
infected with one or more nasty diseases. If that wasn’t enough to give a
person pause, they commonly are loaded with mites, ticks and fleas, with all
the diseases that those little bugs carry. Again, they may look something like
your family dog, but they definitely are not!

Coyotes are predators
and as with all predators, their populations must be kept under control or they
will rapidly overrun their environment. Case in point, the alligators in the
southeastern United States. At one time they were endangered, so hunting and
trapping was shut down. After years of protection, their numbers exploded to
the point that hunting and trapping is essential to keeping their numbers under
control. The same applies to coyotes; if they are not controlled, you had
better watch your pets and children, because coyotes will go after anything
that appears to be a meal and they can hunt in packs. They are infamous for killing domestic dogs and cats.

While it is true that
rodents and lagomorphs make up the bulk of the coyote diet, they are capable of
killing prey 6-8 times their own size (they average 25-50 lbs.) under
appropriate conditions. The latter includes sheep, goats and calves. Like many
other predators, they frequently kill more than is necessary to fulfill their
immediate needs. They are innately programmed to kill. Their skill at taking
down a variety of prey depends on experience and practice. As such, it is not
uncommon for them to kill more than is necessary to sustain them, since
practice makes perfect. If one doubts that, just ask any sheep or goat rancher
about their experience with coyotes.

In 2009, the loss of
sheep and lambs to coyotes in Montana was 2,500 adult sheep and 12,100 lambs
for a cost of over $1 million dollars. They can also kill full-sized cattle. The
record for coyote cattle losses in the lower 48 U.S. states was in 2005, when
coyotes accounted for 51% of all cattle losses due to predators. These figures
are from the USDA and can be easily verified. We could go on, state-by-state,
but we believe readers get the idea. Coyotes are predators, not the sweet
cuddly critters that the animal rights people would have you believe.

Back to the story. The
anti-hunters mounted a street protest outside Gunhawk Firearms and, as one
would expect, the reporters (local and ABC national affiliates) spent more time
with them than the anti-protestors down the street and inside Gunhawk.

However, the plot thickens. Enter the Deputy State Director of the Bureau of Land Management,
William Merhege, who sent a letter dated 9 Nov. 2012 to Mark Chavez stating:

“in the event your planned activity includes the use of
public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), a Special
Recreational Permit (SRP) for competitive use is required. Competitive use
means any organized, sanctioned or structured use, event, or activity on public
land in which two or more contestants compete and participants register, enter
or complete, an application for the event (43 CFR 2932.5).”

“Special Recreation Permits are discretionary authorizations
which allow for recreational use of the public lands and are issued as a means
to control visitor use, protect recreational and natural resources, and provide
for the health and safety of visitors. The Bureau of Land Management requires
applications for SRPs be submitted at least 180 days before the date of the
intended event, although under special circumstances we can authorize shorter
application times. An application for an SRP for the planned event would
include, at a minimum, the submission of a plan of operations, a safety plan
and purchase and proof of liability insurance for the named event. Regardless,
it would be impossible for our office to process an SRP application for your
event on such short notice.”

Anyone with more than
two brain cells knows that the regulation was intended for activities like
movie operations, RV camper conclaves, etc. on a specific piece of BLM land. In
our opinion, this letter was designed to intimidate Mark Chavez at Gunhawk and
prevent individual hunters across the state from exercising their lawful
rights. In our opinion, what we have here is a bureaucrat who is anti-hunting
(and possibly anti-firearms) who took advantage of the situation, attempting to
coerce and threaten with a fine, Mr. Chavez if he did not comply. Mark did not,
as he was not sponsoring a BLM event. However, if individual hunters choose to
lawfully hunt on BLM land, Mr. Merhege has no authority to prevent them and if
he thinks he does, he should be removed from his position.

It gets better. A politician from the State of New Mexico also decided to get into the
act. Mr. Ray Powell, State Land Commissioner, sent a letter to Mark on Nov 15th,
two days prior to the hunt informing him that any coyote hunters that entered
state trust lands would be cited for trespass. Of course, Mr. Powell blatantly
ignored the fact that hunters already know that state trust lands are leased
out to business enterprises, including those involved in mineral and petroleum
exploration and are off limits to hunters and always have been. Mr. Powell
already knows that. He was simply grandstanding to advance his personal anti-hunting
views. He even went on television to espouse how the hunting of coyotes would
damage their family units and cause a severe disruption of the delicate balance
of the desert ecosystem. Now, that is a real serving of cow pie! As State Land Commissioner, Mr. Powell has no
right to use his position and official letterhead to further his own personal
agenda, by stating: “It is time to
outlaw this highly destructive activity.” He must be voted out of office in the
next election.

The coyote hunt was
held as scheduled and was a success. For the safety of Gunhawk employees and
the hunters, they were required to check in after the hunt at an undisclosed
location. We have no idea as to how many coyotes were harvested and that is not
our business. We would also like to point out that on the same weekend that the
Gunhawk coyote hunt was undertaken, there were at least two others across the
state, but the powers that be, news media and protestors ignored them. They
chose to pick on Gunhawk Firearms; a small, family-owned business that they
thought was an easy target.

It is our opinion that
the aforementioned government officials and radical protestors have been
emboldened by the re-election of one of the most anti-gun presidents in the
history of this country. Their attempt to stop this coyote hunt may well be the
first shot of many to follow by the anti-hunting and anti-gun crowd, as they
attempt to take away the Second Amendment rights of all Americans. We wholeheartedly endorse their right not to
hunt; but wish they would educate themselves before trying to take rights away from others.

We take our hats off
to Mr. Mark Chavez for standing up for our rights, at the risk of his own
personal safety. He deserves your business, if you live in New Mexico.